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We Kept Austin Weird…And Then Some!

Seriously, friends. If you need a new job, go apply to be in sales at Nationwide RIGHT NOW! My amazing GF Megs won an incentive trip through her job at Nationwide and was kind enough to take me as her +1. Boy did I luck out! We traveled a day early to Austin so we could spend a full day and night checking out the city with some of her work peeps. {Check out my travel shenanigans here.} I cannot tell you enough about how fun these cats she works with were, though. Megs is lucky to work with such a nice and fun bunch of people–and I was lucky to spend a long weekend and my first trip to Texas with them all!!

When we got to Austin we walked around 6th Street and immediate chose The Jackalope for our first beer and lunch. I had a Jalapeno Honey Bacon Burger, and it was freakin’ delish. Plus, we learned that in Texas you drink Lone Star Beers and there was a GIANT JACKALOPE THAT YOU COULD RIDE at the entrance. Enough said!

Megs riding the Jackalope!

From there we pretty much bar hopped and walked around 6th Street and the Industrial District. {Waterloo Records was a pretty sweet spot, and we even got ice cream at Texas’ own Amy’s Ice Cream} Oh, and we took this awesome group photo. Yah…it was a pretty good day!

That night we got dressed up and we to an AMAZING dinner at La Condesa…a restaurant that I recommend 200%. It was AH-MAZ-ING. The ONLY thing I negative I can say was that I didn’t really think the marg I had there was the best. But the food more than made up for it. Plus we started with this rock star guac and salsas mix. You really cannot go wrong with this appetizer. Get to Austin, and eat there NOW!!

I looked for more pics from our night in Austin–dancing to live music, drinking, laughing–but I guess I was having too much fun to document it. Oh well….lets just say it was a blast! There were roof top patios on many of the bars and the Iowas were lovin’ it in the Texas heat! My only negative comment I could say about 6th Street was that pretty much every bathroom I went into made me want to gag, and several of the bars reeked of vom. BUT we were definitely in a “college town” area and we weren’t going to fancy places, so I shouldn’t really complain. I’ve seen Iowa City bars look worse on a football Saturday!!!

Early the next morning we got up and walked to the capital to do some site seeing and I played photographer for Megan’s fashion blog. I wore my adorable new dress my mom had given me from Loft that she’d picked up while working her one weekend day a month job {helllloooo employee discount!}.

Then we walked, and walked, and walked looking for a little coffee shop to eat some brunch, but when we got to where we thought we were going, we were disappointed to know it had closed. Ugh, so we went into this little dive bar looking place to ask where we should go. They convinced us to stay, and we sat at the bar chatting with the manager while we waited for our lunch. Turns out, the Texas Chili Parlor is actually a kind of famous place. Watch this video to see it featured on the Travel Channel!

It was too hot out for chili, but we were sure glad we literally stumbled into the restaurant, because the food was great, the beer was cold, and turns out we hit a landmark without even trying! AND I was able to get my dad and G a sweet souvenir t-shirt there, which I really think they’ll like {sorry for the spoiler, Dad!} We crammed a LOT into our short 24 hours in Austin, but I think we did a great job seeing as much as possible and getting {a piece of} the full experience. And I am DEFINITELY making a trip back sometime. G would love it there, and I’m sure there’s plenty more to see! The weather is pretty much to die for, too–at least this time of year.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the rest of our weekend at the incredible Horseshoe Bay resort and how much Nationwide hooked us up. I’ll also share the story of Megan meeting her dream man while we were getting our nails done at the salon!

Oh, and before I go I wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite bloggers —Sheaffer over at Pinterest Told Me To–because she JUST HIT 1 million views on her blog {ummm, I was REALLY PUMPED when I hit 1 THOUSAND views}, AND she was really sweet to comment on my blog about what to wear in Texas. Her advice about the cardigans came in handy and was spot on, and it was just awesome to hear from someone I think is pretty cool! So congrats on your milestone, Sheaffer!! Can’t wait to see where you’ll go from here!!